Matt Patricia may be the clear favorite to become the next Detroit Lions head coach, but the New England Patriots defensive coordinator had no interest in talking about that possibility during his weekly teleconference Monday.

Quinn spent 16 seasons with the Patriots before taking over as Lions GM two years ago, and worked 12 of those years with Patricia.

"I have relationships with guys throughout the entire league and I obviously like to maintain my relationships to the best of their ability," Patricia said. "But really right now my focus is on Tennessee and just trying to get ready for what we have in front of us, that’s kind of my main thing right now."

The Patriots, the No. 1 seed in the AFC, are double-digit favorites in their divisional round playoff game against the Tennessee Titans on Saturday.

The Lions are expected to zero in on their next head coach this week, but if it's Patricia, they can't finalize a deal after the Patriots' season is over.

New England would host a potential AFC championship game Jan. 21, and NFL rules would permit the Lions to meet with Patricia again during the week off between the conference championship game and the Super Bowl.

Along with the Lions, Patricia interviewed with the New York Giants on Friday and the Arizona Cardinals on Saturday.

Two years ago, Patricia interviewed with the Cleveland Browns. One of Patricia's friends told the Free Press last week Patricia was offered the Browns job at the time, but that "one of the sticking points was he felt like a three-year contract wasn’t long enough to turn that program around."

"He’s not just looking for the next step, he’s looking for probably the step," said the friend and old college teammate, Scott Sasenbury. "He’s been with the Patriots his entire NFL career, and there’s a reason for that because I think he wants to go somewhere, he wants to build something, he wants to have a legacy similar to (Bill) Belichick and some of those guys. But he’s a loyal guy. He’s not looking to come in and get rich, he’s looking to put his mark on a team and take them to the next level."

Patricia did not give any indication of what he expects to come of his interview with the Lions when asked in general terms about his interviews Monday.

"That was a process that took place through the course of a couple days there on the weekend, or a day on the weekend," Patricia said. "It’s always a learning experience, like when I’ve been through it before. You have the opportunity to learn about some other franchises and get a chance to talk about how they do things and really just kind of broaden your whole overall education of what the NFL and the different organizations are.

"So it’s always a very informative process and it’s interesting when you go through it. The good part about it is when it’s done, then you really kind of just flip your focus back to the task at hand. So really at that point it was the three teams, trying to prepare for who we were going to play and then obviously got narrowed down and full steam ahead on Tennessee trying to get ready to defend a very talented group. So quickly got to turn the page and get all of our attention and focus on detail to getting ready for them."